Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University Hosts Reception for Parliament of the World’s Religions Site Committee
Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University hosted a reception welcoming the visiting Site Committee of the Parliament of the World’s Religions on Friday, December 17.
The event, sponsored by the DFW Interfaith Coalition, welcomed a diverse group of area religious leaders, along with SMU President R. Gerald Turner, Perkins Dean William B. Lawrence, Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief, Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert, and Sulaiman Hemani, chair of the DFW Interfaith Coalition Steering Committee.
The Dallas-Fort Worth area is one of three finalist cities in the bid to host the Parliament of the World’s Religions in 2014.
Other locations under consideration by the PWR are Brussels and Guadalajara. The reception at SMU constituted the Site Committee’s final formal meeting during their six-day in-depth visit to North Texas.
The Parliament of the World’s Religions seeks:
- to promote interreligious harmony, rather than unity.
- a convergence of purpose, rather than consensus of belief and practice.
- to operate through facilitation, rather than formal structure.
- to build trust as much as agreement.
The original Parliament of the World’s Religions was held in Chicago in 1893. Since 1993 the event has convened four times in locations around the world.
In addition to thousands of delegates representing religions and nations from around the world, attendance at past Parliaments has included scholars and academics, representatives from worldwide news media outlets, workers with non-governmental organizations and relief agencies, and a wide array of religious and political dignitaries.
For more information about the Site Committee’s visit, contact Dr. Robert Hunt, director of Global Theological Education at Perkins, 214-768-1374 or rhunt@smu.edu.
Perkins School of Theology , founded in 1911 at Southern Methodist University , is one of five official University-related schools of theology of The United Methodist Church . Degree programs include the Master of Divinity, Master of Sacred Music, Master of Theological Studies, Master of Church Ministries, and Doctor of Ministry, as well as the Ph.D., in cooperation with The Graduate Program in Religious Studies at SMU’s Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences.
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